3 Uncommon Tips For Practicing Jazz Piano Technique
March 2, 2026
When most of us think about practicing jazz piano technique or jazz piano exercises we usually think of the same old boring exercises that piano players have been playing for countless years.
Things like scale practice, arpeggios, Hanon exercises, and playing classical pieces.
Now, to be fair these technique studies and piano drills can be useful in certain ways. But, they don’t seem to be a direct path to help us become better jazz musicians.
So, what jazz techniques and exercises can we do to specifically improve our jazz playing?
A Funny But Sad Story
By the time I was 18 I knew I wanted to be a jazz musician. I really wanted to learn how to play well! So, I practiced lots and lots.
I used to practice my classical pieces and hanon exercises for hours everyday. Wow, could I burn at Hanon! The more I practiced Hanon the faster I got at them. Sadly, I couldn’t solo that well but boy could I play Hanon 🙂
My fingers could move fast but when I would jam with other musicians nothing came out right. I left many jam sessions feeling frustrated.
Playing Hanon and 4 octave scales up an down everyday just didn’t lead to great jazz. I left a jam session so frustrated one night that I knew I had to immediately change the way I practiced. That was my rude awakening 🙂
Just practicing technique in the traditional classical way won’t lead you to your goal of becoming a better jazz musician.
So, what can jazz musicians practice to not only improve our overall technical control of the instrument but also lead directly to us playing better jazz?
Fortunately, I’ve had 15 years more experience , countless hours of practice, and over a 1700 gigs under my belt since then.
So, I’d like to share with you the discoveries I’ve made since then. Here are 3 improved ways of practicing jazz piano technique. Think of these as piano drills for the real world.
A Jazz Piano Technical Routine
1. How I Practice Scales
When I warmup I’ll usually warm up with scales but I’ll do it in a very different way than what is traditionally done.
Playing scales in straight eighth notes or sixteenth 4 octaves up and down the piano with a metronome on every beat is not very jazzy!
Since I mostly perform jazz and blues I practice my scales almost exclusively with a swing feel.
In order for me to make sure my swing feel is really happening I’ll usually set the metronome to click just on beats 2 and 4.
This emulates a high-hat and the 2 and 4 accent pattern you’ll hear in a jazz rhythm section.
I also will put on some jam tracks from the Premium Membership Course and play my scales swinging over a I-VI-II-V-I chord progression in each key.
It’s all about being musical and simulating real musical situations. In this case it’s playing behind a groove and a chord progression.
2. Jazz Transcriptions…yes. Hanon….no.
Instead of playing Hanon exercises or other etudes I’ll practice what I consider the real jazz jazz piano exercises. Specifically, I spend my time trying to execute transcriptions of challenging solos I’ve personally transcribed.
This in itself can be a phenomenal resource for learning piano technique. Not only am I studying jazz licks, jazz phrasing, but I’m also being challenged on the technical level.
It probably wouldn’t be musically appropriate for me to play a scale run that Beethoven composed on my next gig but I can definitely throw in a technically challenging Chick Corea or Bill Evans lick that I’ve been practicing.
(If you need a good jazz transcription to get you started you can check out this Barry Harris Transcription or this Sonny Clark transcription). These are great jazz piano exercises.
3. Jazz Licks = Piano Tricks 🙂
Another immensely useful things I do for developing my piano technique is practicing licks.
When I practice licks I make sure to practice them in all 12 keys and try to speed up the tempos while maintaining a good rhythmic feel.
This is a goldmine for improving my piano technique.
As I’m sure you noticed in your own playing it’s usually easier to play certain licks and piano runs in some keys more than others. Spending the time to figure out why that is has paid off for me in a very deep way!
I ask myself what I can do technically to realize an idea just as well perhaps in Ab as in the key of C or the key of D?
5 Possible Piano Technique Discoveries
For example:
- Do you need to curl you fifth finger more?
- Is your pinkie sticking up more than it should?
- Do you need to move my thumb under more quickly on a crossover?
- Do you have to much weight one side of my hand and not the other?
- When you move my thumb under does it create an accent where there shouldn’t be?
All these things can effect your swing feel. Learning how to navigate different keys has made my finger motions much more efficient.
I know that I wasted alot of time early in my jazz studies practicing technique incorrectly.
More Jazz Piano Exercises For You To Explore
If you want to some lick samples to explore I’ve created a whole DVD that studies the jazz vocabulary and licks of 9 jazz piano masters called the Jazz Masters Method DVD.
If you want to learn how create endless amount of your own licks then this special course is for you.
With over 2,000 copies sold in 3 years people seem to enjoy it quite a bit! 🙂
Jazz Piano Arrangements And More Chords
If you want to your jazz piano arrangements to sound more authentic you can check out this sample jazz piano arrangement lesson.
Now, what if you’d rather to play jazz standards like the pros? Or, what if you want a step by step solution to master all the best chords because you’re short on time?
You can get immediate access to 18 hours of arrangements, chord lessons, lick tutorials, & more inside my Premium Jazz Lessons Elite Membership Course.
It’s constantly updating every month with hours of brand new lessons. It’s like having a jazz piano teacher accessible to you 24 hours a day.
In many ways because every lesson is fully notated and you can watch and rewind the HD videos as much as you like it’s even better. 🙂
Now It’s Your Turn
How about you? How do you practice your piano technique? Do you have any jazz techniques that you love to practice?
(I’d like to thank a reader of this site by the name of Ken for the inspiration to write this article.)
If you found this piano technique article useful please leave a comment below, sign up for the free jazz lessons mailing list, or share on your favorite social network! 🙂
great article. How fast do you put the metronome when practicing your scales. Do you feel like at certain tempos you start to lose your swing feel?
@Mike Thanks! The metronome marking depends on what scales I’m practicing. Anywhere from 100-300bpm. The main this is to always maintain a good swing feel and then build from there. Accuracy and swing feel first..and then speed will come 🙂
The nature of swing feel actually changes at faster tempos. As the tempo increases the more even the eighth notes eventually become. So, usually at 100 bpm the first eighth note is quite a bit longer than the second one. But, if you move the metronome to 200 you’re still swinging but the eighths tend to even a bit more. At 300 alot of players will just pretty much play even eighth notes.
Thanks for the tips…
I have been practicing exactly as you say I shouldn’t for the past year. I guess it’s OK cause it’s good to know the scales, get correct posture and exercise the fingers…
But now it’s time to swing…
This should make practicing so much more fun as well 🙂
@JD So happy to hear you liked the article. I really hope this will also make your scale practice more enjoyable. Practicing should be fun right! 🙂
And now is rude awaking for me! I am practicing a lot classical exercises and I have found them useless%(
Do you practice with metronome all the time?
I don’t think they’re necessarily “useless” 🙂 I think in general there needs to be more added to them if you’re going to try and play jazz well. Just playing classical exercises won’t get your jazz chops entirely together.
I practice w/ a metronome or some sort of rhythmic keeping device (jam track, drum groove, recording etc.) the vast majority of the time.
Ok. I will do the same. Thank you, Steve! Every my visit to your web-site gives me more interesting information. Now, even despite all my weaknesses, I can see the improvement of my improvising skills. And most of that is because of your advises. Thank you again!
By the way, inspired by this article I found some interesting book – “Improvisational patterns” by David Baker. It contents daily jazz calisthenics, scales, scales with added note, perpetual motion exercise, patterns and other useful stuff.
Do you use this kind of books for your practice or you create the exercises by yourself? Can you advise something for the beginners like me?
David Baker is a very smart guy and I’m sure everything he writes has great information in there. Those books could be helpful.
I don’t really use those books right now in my study. For me I usually go right to the source and sit down and listen to people like Clifford Brown, Barry Harris, and Charlier Parker 🙂
Band in a Box – great software! I’m having so much fun playing licks and standards now! It’s feel like you are on stage with a band. And it seems to be very helpful! Thanks, Steve!
I have to disagree with classical exercises being useless. The thing is, the exercises do NOT translate into being a great jazz improviser, which is pretty much essential in being a jazz musician. However, you may not even realize how helpful the classical exercise are in strengthening your ability to learn new licks and phrases faster, cleaner, and with overall better technique.
Classical scale practice still does apply, you simply can’t stop there. Adding a swing to the scales is a great idea, no one ever said you can’t do that. But the limbering and strengthening of the fingers, as well as learning finger independence, most certainly translates to jazz as well. Classical exercises are not meant to be exhaustive, but they are still very applicable for all music genres. I daresay that most of the times, the musician with a classical background (keyword: background) is the better musician, at least technique wise.
Hi Tanner. Thanks for your comment. I never said they were useless. Please reread the article. I specifically stated “Things like scale practice, arpeggios, Hanon exercises, and playing classical pieces.
“Now, to be fair these technique studies can be useful in certain ways but they don’t seem to be a direct path to help us become better jazz musicians”
My point is that those exercises are useful in certain ways but they just practicing technique in the traditional classical way won’t lead you to your goal of becoming a better jazz musician.
There’s just way more involved in playing jazz correctly than practicing technique. Specifically, I”m talking about rhythmic concepts.
The traditional classical exercise don’t address the many important stylistic elements. Things like jazz time feel, jazz articulation, improvisational note selection, phrasing groove etc. etc.
Chops are one thing but in jazz it all starts with the groove. Thelonius Monk didn’t have chops in the traditional sense but he had groove.
Simply put..classical exercises are great. There just needs to be more added for jazz musicians.
Sorry but I disagree with your opinion Tanner. Classical exercises makes a jazz player sound choppy,without flow and syncopation.I found that practising classical exercises makes one sound good playing classical music. The movement of motif from one progression to the other (ii-V-I)is never addressed in classical exercises. In Jazz ,the player has to make the change rhythmically and on the fly with emotion for the effect to be felt and heard. No amount of Hannon or straight scales and arpeggios are going to give you that.
PLAYING JAZZ MAKES YOUR CLASSICAL MUSIC SOUND BETTER FOOL!!!….Not the other way around (I ve ran accross your type before)
Go back to your old school ways….my money is on Chick Correa, Keith Jarrett. Rachael Z and Herbie Hancock…ALL excellent classical players AND Monsters in the Jazz world!!
I am a recent graduate from a great music school with a bachelor’s in music education. I moved back home and now I’m playing with a local band. (gigging every weekend) We play classic rock covers/grateful dead tunes/blues. I’ve hit a wall bc my classical background isn’t helping me all that much when I’m put on the spot to “take a solo.” Your article has inspired me that a classical player can become a jazzhead. Jazz playing is my new challenge…and a TOTALLY different beast from classical. Thanks for the practice tips. 🙂
Steve,
Great article as usual. ow would you say that way of practicing licks and transcriptions is more beneficial since essentially you are (more or less) practicing in the “classical” way? Just wondering how you go about implementing licks into your overall jazz playing?
Also, I’d like to add that not only can you play scales with a swing feel which is helpful, but I’ve found playing scales in the following ways very helpful (in all keys of course): in broken thirds, tenths, contrary motion. The chromatic scale, playing every major and minor scale. Half/Whole and Whole/Half diminished scales, Pentatonic scales, blues scales, augmented scales, all major and minor mode scales (dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, locrian, locrian natural 2, alt scale, lydian augmented, lydian dominant, etc. etc.)
In my opinion you should never neglect scales and you should always find new and creative ways to play them. Not only do they help with technique but they also give you more of an understanding of possible scales to implement in your jazz playing. Just a suggestion.
hi steve; what’s a good (budget) metronome in your opinion? i’d need to buy one. hope to hear from you. kind regards,
Hey Tom!
A lot of the time I use a metronome that’s built into my computer and jam tracks that I create. A lot of my students use a metronome made by Matrix and really enjoy it though. Here’s a link to the model they use. http://amzn.to/1b2dgsn Hope this helps!
thank you steve !
My pleasure Tom.
Steve,
I was told at a gig while doing an up tempo tune that it sounded like I was just playing eighth note without accents. I know the chords and the scales but how do I practice up tempo and add the correct accents? At slower speeds this is not a problem. Thanks.
Joe
Good question. One exercise you could consider doing is practicing scales and or licks you like with specific rhythmic accents and articulations. First start at slow tempo to get comfortable with the accents and then gradually speed up until you’re able to execute them at an up tempo.
Hi. Wow, very interesting, as i was reading this post i felt i was reading description of my own piano playing. I practise hanon, scales an hour or longer every day, i try to eliminate various technical difficulties. Even the pinky question or am I playing right stands up for me There’s obviously no accurate way to play hannon, i guess i could depend on the author but his discipline I would end up playing 3 hours every day.. I often get frustrated after jazz jams, because I don’ t achieve solos that i would like to play. I am confused.. if i need to find the melodies inside of me or does it come naturally, I often think it just becomes a mechanical thing, maybe because of practising technique that much, but lately i understood that you can hear the melody inside and try to express it in reality. Its good to know that there’ s someone who did the same thing :). Do you get bored of playing sometimes? or did you use to get bored when you used to play hanon?
Hi Aušvydas,
It’s a common problem so I’m glad you can relate 🙂 It sounds like you would benefit for more ear training, learning more jazz vocabulary, and transcribing too. Practicing technique exclusively by itself just won’t make you a better jazz player. You have to mix in lots of other stuff.
These days I rarely get bored of playing because there’s so much cool stuff to learn. I’ve been teaching piano for 17 years but I will forever be a student of music.
Thanks for your comment!
Hi Aušvydas,
It’s a common problem so I’m glad you can relate 🙂 It sounds like you would benefit for more ear training, learning more jazz vocabulary, and transcribing too. Practicing technique exclusively by itself just won’t make you a better jazz player. You have to mix in lots of other stuff.
These days I rarely get bored of playing because there’s so much cool stuff to learn. I’ve been teaching piano for 17 years but I will forever be a student of music.
Thanks for your comment!
Hi. Wow, very interesting, as i was reading this post i felt i was reading description of my own piano playing. I practise hanon, scales an hour or longer every day, i try to eliminate various technical difficulties. Even the pinky question or am I playing right stands up for me There’s obviously no accurate way to play hannon, i guess i could depend on the author but his discipline I would end up playing 3 hours every day.. I often get frustrated after jazz jams, because I don’ t achieve solos that i would like to play. I am confused.. if i need to find the melodies inside of me or does it come naturally, I often think it just becomes a mechanical thing, maybe because of practising technique that much, but lately i understood that you can hear the melody inside and try to express it in reality. Its good to know that there’ s someone who did the same thing :). Do you get bored of playing sometimes? or did you use to get bored when you used to play hanon?
Hi Steve, this is Carlijn from the Netherlands, can’t believe how much I learn from you and how you widen my horizons in jazz. Is it possible for you to play your jazz scales on video? Just for me to get a visual/audio. I’ve listened to Sonny Clark Blue Minor, really great; I’ll have a ball trying to play the solo! But I like to point you to a Youtube video of Kiyoshi Miyaura Live 1 in which he also plays Blue Minor. Unbelievably swinging; he’s got great solo’s.
Hi Carlijn,
Thank you! As far as scales go, I have several DVD’s and course that feature lots scales and also some blog tips videos as well.
Liszts technical exercises. only i change the arpegios and chords into jazz voicings. butt essentially if you want to master the piano, practice like the master. Chopins etudes opus 25 have dozens of uses in jazz. especially swing bass and long lines. arpegios of wide spaced chords etc, etc. what more would any one want. when youve mastered those, then you can attack rachmaninovs preludes. after that nothing in jazz will elude you. Thats How Oscar practiced. finished his practice day with jazz but 8 or so hours was pure classical.
One way to practice scales is following the chord pattern of a song. arpegiate up the chord and come down in its scalar mode and vice versa going through the changes of a standard or whatever tune you might be trying to improvise in. do it with both hands together or one hand accompanying the chords switching from left to right. invent a rhythmic pattern and play your scales and arpegios to that, etc etc
do NOT swing all the time or youll b sloppy like thelonius monk who couldnt string 3 notes together with any clarity.
Interesting perspective. Appreciate the comment.
Steve thanks for your artcle and I began as you trying to do my best with Hannon, but it nevers work for the way I want to play Jazz. Great.
My pleasure Juan. I’m a fan of Hanon. I’ve used it for years to build my overall technique but alot of people think if they practice Hanon it will make them a better jazz player….it’s not a direct correlation unfortunately.
Thanks for the reminders. I was becoming quite frustrated, so this definitely helps!
Awesome glad you found this article useful Anedra!
Thanks Steve! I love your lessons a lot.
You’re welcome!
Thanks for this great article Steve! Jut for curiosity, howw many hours did you used to practice every day to achieve the level you actually have now? I really love the piano, but I’m really lazy, and I dont know if I capable of giving the piano a lot of hours. (Sorry for my english, I’m actually from spain, so I dont speak it very well).
Thanks again for this article!
Hi Ander,
From my experience, all great things come in life from work and dedication. The results one gets is in direct correlation to the amount of time one puts in. So, I would try to improve work ethic and work on your mind set. Personally, I put many hours in per day. I didn’t see it as work though. Sure I worked hard and pushed myself but the process was very enjoyable.
Hi Steve
Thank you so much for sharing these things!
I’m wondering about the part about transcribing solos. I’m not that fast at reading or transcribing music onto paper. But I have learned a few solos by ear and this has made one of the best improvements on my solo playing by far. Do you find it necessary to include the writing-down-part, or is it okay to just learn them by ear?
Vera
Hi Vera,
I always learn them by ear first. Then, afterward I write them out and do some additional analysis. Thanks for your comment.